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Jun 30, 2010

LETTERS TO JULIET (2010)

The tagline is “What if you had a second chance to find true love?” It all begins like Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story”, “We were both young, when I first saw you.” There is a place in Verona where broken-hearted women can write their letters and sticks it on the wall. Those letters will be replied by a group called Juliet’s Secretaries. By her curiosity, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) gets involved into the group, while she is on a vacation with her fiancé, Victor (Gael García Bernal). Sophie accidentally has found an unanswered letter, and tries to reply it after 50 years buried. The letter which was written by a woman named Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) takes them all to a quest to find Claire’s first love Lorenzo Bartolini. Young Bartolini once asked Claire to run away with him. Thiz part is when the song says, “Romeo takes me somewhere we can be alone, I’ll be waiting all there’s left to do is run.” But young Claire never showed up. Meanwhile, Claire’s grandson, Charlie (Christopher Egan) comes along to join their road trip adventure. Later, Sophie and Charlie also find themselves having a special feeling with each other. Amanda Seyfried has always been my favorite Actress since first I saw her in ”Mamma Mia!” (2008). But I have to admit that her acting hasn’t shown particular improvement yet. Seyfried’s chemistry with Egan as her love interest is extremely poor. It seems Egan doesn’t know what to do with his role. Gael García Bernal who I respect him as an extraordinary Actor in previous indie movies like “Y tu Mamá También” (2001) and “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004), also makes one dimensional performance with his monotone behavior. Vanessa Redgrave shows better performance as Claire, although it’s not so special as well. A good story to tell, but it fails in almost all aspects in directing, the man who is responsible is Gary Winick (also directed “Charlotte’s Web” {2006} and “Bride Wars” {2009}). In Fact, the emotions are barely flat throughout the entire movie. Despite its obvious inadequacies, there is one heartwarming moment, when finally Claire meets Charlie again. Their reunion heals their long lost love. In that very moment, the believability is effective. That’s the time when we come to the end of the song, “You’ll never have to be alone, I love you and that’s all I really know.” It’s a fabulous letter but doesn’t get delivered.